Worried about SLS admissions

All right, so basically, at the end of my sophomore year (last year), I felt as though I was pretty much on track for the whole west point application trail. I was just outside of the top 5% of my class, had a good PSAT score (212), was class president, and had lettered in two sports, cross country and track. This year, however, I seem to have bitten off more than I can chew. I'm now in 3 ap classes (the rest are honors) in addition to sports, student council, church (youth group leader, confirmation leader, and head of a local chapter of a charity), debating, the school paper (contibutor, not editor, unfortunately) and the local board of education, on which I am a student representative. The first quarter of my school year, I basically crashed; i got on average 4 hours of sleep a night, which signifigantly affected studying/ doing work, and my grades began to fall. Usually, I have mostly A's, with one B+. So far this year, i have mostly B+s, 2 As, and a C in ap chem (I'm doing better this quarter, though). I decided not to drop out of any of my courses because I thought that, well, I need to learn to handle this kind of pressure. But, I'm kind of worried that when I apply for SLS in december, I won't have enough time to make up for the ground I lost the first quarter of this year. Basically, what does USMA see when you apply for SLS, and what do you need (class rank, PSAT, etc.) to get in? I think I may have made semifinalist for the national merit scholarship, but I won't know until I get my scores. I'm hoping, though, haha. Oh, and I did an internship this summer working on a documentary of Martin Luther King, Jr's time in my town, I'm not sure if that would help with admissions or anything.

Thanks, I know this is kind of long, but that kind of describes how my life is organized right now, in a way.

From what other SLS attendees have told me in the past, West Point mostly looks at PSAT/SAT and Class rank when determining who to accept for SLS.

I think you'll be fine because all your activities and everything look top notch. When I got accepted for SLS last year, my SAT scores were disappointingly low (I had taken it december of my junior year because I had never taken PSAT) at 1800, and I still got in mostly because I had my MALO pushing for me (if you haven't contacted yours yet, definitely do it! My MALO is great and she's helped me so much) and I had loads of extra curricular activities and volunteering and such.

But SLS was one of the best weeks of my life! Good luck to you, hope you get in!

Oh yeah and I'm in AP chem this year... I feel you there. Definitely a lot more loaded and tough than I expected.

jlwilkes101

By what read you are just fine. Keep up the good work.



RGK

Thanks so much everyone! Quick question though, how exactly do I contact my MALO?

when you have an account (candidate account) set up on the USMA website, there is a tab that will say Liasons. Your regional MALO is there will his/her address and contact info. You may be able to find out before hand. I believe that MALOs have other MALO's information. I think you can ask marciemi for a list of MALOs in your area. He gave me a list of like 50 when I asked.

jlwilkes101 said:

Thanks so much everyone! Quick question though, how exactly do I contact my MALO?

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You will want to find your MALO ahead of time if possible, but another way to meet many of them is to seek out the academy day opportunities.

You can usually find them on your senator or representative web sites. Even if not current there will often be an email or phone contact.

This is one of the best ways to meet the field force, and at our local academy days there is nearly always cadets there to talk with, etc.

You should identify your admissions rep, and ask to be added to their mailing list. This will get you notification of any academy presentations in your area. That's another great way to meet MALO's and academy reps & cadets. USMA has 2-3 per year in the Atlanta area, for example.

The following link will help you identify your admissions rep, and also show you any upcoming events in your area:

http://portal.dean.usma.edu/admissions/Pages/default.aspx

Even if you don't meet your exact MALO at these events, they will look up yours, and usually take your info to forward to them. (That's been our experience, anyway)

You'll also want to download and read the catalog, lot's of good admissions info there as well:

http://admissions.usma.edu/moreinfo/wp_catalog.pdf

Sending admissions a direct e-mail works.